Now that the construction of the new Governmental Complex is nearing completion, it has me thinking what traffic will be like when it is opened. All I can picture right now is a quagmire.

Once the truck route is completely opened, traffic on Main St will get better. Sometimes turning left onto Main leaving Railroad St. is only a dream. But when work on the Depot and Railroad St is completed sometime next year, the plan is for traffic to be one way on Railroad from Main to Greenway Streets. Where I see problems are at these intersections: Greenway and Railroad, Greenway and Whiteoak, Greenway and Gordon, Black and Hill and to a lesser extent Railroad and Whiteoak.

The first thing I feel that needs to happen is to get rid of the four-way stops. People don't generally know who needs to go and when and what you have is people trying to be nice and wave the other person on and they aren't paying attention until they try to wave another person on. So you have people starting, stopping then starting again. It just doesn't work and it especially will not work with the increased traffic.

One option would be to give the right of way to traffic on Railroad at the Greenway intersection and give the right of way to Greenway at the Whiteoak. If that is deemed unacceptable then I would go with stop lights.

I feel stop lights are inevitable at the intersection of Black and Hill Streets (try turning left out of there now and see where you go and how quickly).

There may be currently enough traffic at the intersection of Greenway and Gordon Streets to warrant a stop light and there certainly will be when everything is completed. Martin Luther King St would have to be reworked so it will connect with Greenway though.

The intersection of Railroad and Whiteoak may be OK for now but it will eventually need some attention.

Then we have the matter of the railroad crossing. I could be wrong but I think it is the responsibility of CSX to install crossing guards on Greenway St. I would think three train/vehicle collisions in the last two years with one fatality would be enough to justify the cost.

Turning right onto Greenway from Black St you literally have to use your side and rearview mirrors to see if one is coming around the corner. At 45 MPH, it comes around that corner rather quickly.

I know none of this will get done any time soon. To the best of my knowledge there has been no discussion of doing any additional road work outside of what is currently planned on Railroad St. I would hope our city and county leaders would start doing so soon.